Pump up the, er, pumpkin

A lot of growing in 14 days. And the foliage is staging a bid for world domination...

More sweetcorn porn

The sweetcorn changes every day, and is between 4 and 5 ft tall - I swear it grew 6 inches in one night. It has flowers on the top, and these exotic red beards have just appeared. It seems to like being on a little hillock alongside beans, and being fed on blood, fish and bone and 6X. Yum yum!

Coveting my neighbours' plot

My neighbours, Lyn and Richard, have a very tidy and well organised plot - and a huge frame of sweet peas that look and smell lovely. They grow a small number of a lot of different vegetables, and a large amount of strawberries, which is an approach I shall be copying next year.

I was lurking behind my sweetcorn (now the tallest on the whole site, yay!) to take the pic. Isn't it pretty?

That's shallot

Geddit?

A very satisfying crop, especialy as I only planted them as an afterthought (and with a bad pun in mind). Here they are having a nice sunbathe, prior to being plaited for storage.

A salutory tail

Remember, not everyone is going to be as impressed with your vegetable-growing efforts as you might like.

Everybody needs a bosom for a lottie

The three sisters bed is doing very well, with sweetcorn about two foot high, and little visible silks forming, and the runner beans racing skywards (at least on the lee side!) and flowering beautifully (which makes up for my broad bean failure - note to self: plant them in November ths year!). Several people have said they always have a little look at the 'strange lumps' on my plot with sweetcorn and beans coming out of them which one friend kindly called 'bosoms' - well, everybody needs a bosom for a lottie... (with apologies to Cornershop, obviously).

Squash up

Everything is growing away happily despite the sunless weather we've been having. All the squash on everyone's plots have been very slow this year, but last week, mine have taken off. Here's my 'heritage' squash from Garden Organic (HDRA) which is producing some lovely custard pies.

My pumpkin has also woken up and had a good stretch, and some colonisation looks likely in the near future - it's even produced the very beginning of a tiny tiny pumpkin (aaah).

What's Up, Doc?

Carrots, that's what! My nantes carrots, sown on a wet cold day in the early spring, have come good. I sowed them far too close together, and only did a little bit of thinning for fear of the dreaded carrot fly, but they have done me proud anyway. Pictured here with a cheeky radish and a baby beetroot...

I even managed to get almost half the plot weeded today, dodging showers - apart from the final monsoon when the skies opened (and it took all my moral fibre to go back and shut the gate, I can tell you). Must weed the onions and shallots this week (weather permitting) though it's so hard to avoid damaging the plants - any tips welcome! Also need to lift some spuds to make way for purple sprouting broccoli and cavolo nero.

Despite the weather, I've got to the stage where I can come home from the plot every day with produce - and am self-sufficient in green vegetables, at least at the moment. Makes all the back-breaking digging earlier in the year feel worthwhile.

Giant cabbage demands to sit in the comfy chair!

I feel so happy when I see all the lovely veg growing away on my plot! What could be better? I even had my first ever raspberries today - just two of them, but they were lovely and sweet.

Which one's Olga?

Here is my three sisters bed. I've grown sweetcorn and runner beans in two humps about 2ft across each, with squash planted between the humps - a variation of the traditional Iroquois women's planting scheme called the three sisters. Proper feminist allotmenteering! Apparently the beans nurture the nutrient-hungry sweetcorn, while the squash provide a mulch to keep water in and weeds out with their big spreading leaves.

Now that's what I call a cabbage!

With thanks to Wally who kindly gave me some baby plants...

I feel so proud.

I grew a potato froglet

didn't I?

NB In case of exclusion caused by cultural bias, please visit http://www.clangers.co.uk/.

Harrumph!

Put down of the season, from a fellow plot holder on seeing my peas peeking through the soil: "Is that your second crop?"

harrumph!

Harvested lettuce, new potatoes, chard, mixed salad; planted out some more heritage lettuces, red lettuces and leeks; and sowed the last of the heritage beetroot. Everything has perked up after a good dose of fish, blood and bone - I might be organic, but my vegetables eat meat.

Spud u like?

I am very proud of my potatoes, especially the lovely flowers they are sporting. The flowers have a very sweet scent, and some are white, while others are streaked with pink. I've dug a few and they are doing really well underground too.

My broad beans are a bit disappointing - but as one of my neighbours told me, I should have got them in last year (when my plot was still a jungle!). Got some peas in to make up for it. Fingers crossed.

More on the exciting Chekhov planting in my next entry - it's doing really well; which is more than I can say for the V-gloo, which failed its first test of wind and rain.

In other news... I have gone on a committee by mistake, having promised myself years ago never to go to another meeting when I don't get paid a good fee! I really want to make sure our poor old site gets some of the same things that other sites take for granted - like a fair chunk of its plot fees (apparently we get pocket money handed back by the Council!), bulk purchasing, the right to have sheds (thought that was enshrined in the magna carta, but apparently not), a discount shop, a welcome pack for newcomers and some socials. Maybe even manure and compost, and strimming of plots for new people (not to mention re-letting some of the neglected weed-spreading jungles). Let's see... it's an all-new committee so hopefully will have some energy for the task!

What a difference 10 weeks makes...

Here are the 'during' and 'after' shots of my plot renovation.

There have been even more changes since the second picture - the potatoes are flowering, the jerusalem artichokes are soaring upwards, there are big cabbages coming along, kohl rabi, and a three sisters planting scheme (sweetcorn, beans and squash), though why it's named after a Chekhov play I don't know. Perhaps it loses something in the translation. My pumpkins aren't as fast growing as I was hoping though, but it is early days.

I have caved in and bought a covered raised bed kit for my tomatoes and cucumbers, very exciting. I should have it by the weekend, so those babies can really get going. It's from http://www.v-gloo.co.uk/ - full review to follow on this blog!

Radical success

Absence due to google pretending this blog didn't exist... Harrumph. So here is my very first crop ever, from April 2008!

Have had perpetual spinach and lettuce since - and lots of lovely things from other people (being near the entrance, I think people have taken pity on me in my first year, so thank you Wally for the beans and mooli, and thank you Scottish Rhubarb man for the rhubarb, and of course neighbour Lyn for the strawberries, and other neighbour Harry for the big fat courgette plant (after I had a total crop failure - oops)! All much appreciated.

One potato, two potato, three potato... more?

There comes a time in every allotmenteer's life when you just have to let those babies that have been chitting on the windowsill for weeks go forth and multiply! Grow, my pretties, grow!

Good news is that my earlies have already happily sprouted in a bucket on the patio, which is thoroughly thrilling.

Gordano Valley

North Weston allotments, in the Gordano Valley, are arguably the northernmost outpost of the beautiful Somerset levels, transversed by reens and rich in wildlife. It's wonderful to be able to have a plot in such an atmospheric place. I took this pic last Autumn after a few hours' hacking back the weeds on my plot.

Watching the wildlife

We get all sorts of beasts at North Weston. There are ravenous hordes of fat, lazy and fearless rabbits (must build fence). Ditto deer (though I've cheated in the picture - that one was eating the plants on my patio). My exclusive mole is a super little digging machine who likes to excavate my jerusalem artichokes, and is getting braver and coming further up the plot. Now I know why the soil by the reen was the best on the whole plot.

Of course my piece de resistance is compost bin number 2; I was just digging out some lovely compost for the fruit bed, when one shovelful eyed me irritably and ran off into a bush, looking very well fed and sleek. None of your dirty, mangy city rats on my plot, oh no. These aren't just rats, these are North Weston rats...

Here's one I prepared earlier

Today the plot looks like this - not bad considering it was a wilderness six months ago, if I say so myself!

Any ideas on why the perpetual spinach in the cold frame on the left isn't appearing, please let me know...

The green shoots of... radish!

Nothing more exciting than the very first green shoots from what was a grotty plot... and I've got some. Radish, lettuce and some tiny carrot tops have all made an appearance under my oh-so-fashionable plastic cloche from the reduced section at Argos. While there's still loads of heavy digging to do, it does feel better to have some li'l crops on their way; but oh the heartbreak of thinning!

Lost, but without the fuselage

Once upon a time, there was a little allotment plot in North Weston. It had been a proud and well-cultivated plot, but had (over)grown sad and weedy. aaaaaah.

Then I got the the top of the waiting list and I'm bringing it back to its former glory!

North Weston 5 became mine in September last year - taller than me with weeds, and with matted frames, nets and weeds making it look like a set from Lost (but without the fuselage), and with a heavy clay soil. I've tamed it all on my own using hand tools; we don't get a scrape, plough and free compost service like they do on Gardener's World! It's a gradual process, so I'm prioritising hard, and concentrating on things that are particularly expensive in the shops... I'm going to be organic, and try to encourage as much (beneficial!!) wildlife onto the plot as I can.

So far this year I've planted fruit bushes: three gooseberries, five raspberries, a blackcurrant and three rhubarb crowns. Everything is putting up shoots, which feels like a miracle (except the perpetual spinach which is putting up nothing at all). I've also cleared a bed where I've put the April staples: onions, shallots and garlic, and some potatoes, to get me started.

This week's focus is the bean bed, so I've had two tough digging sessions breaking up the clods of clay soil, and trying to dig out the mare's tail (we've all got it). On previous experience, it takes about four digs to get it ready for planting. Still, it's nice to be able to sit in the dirt and squish it between your hands, and have no one tell you not to!

Ok, I know I should be down there clearing the mare's tail and digging till I drop, but there's a bitterly cold east wind despite the sunshine...